Members of MECHA at Tucson High School thank and welcome librotraficante (http://librotraficante.com/) Tony Diaz by presenting him with posters from Save Ethnic Studies (http://saveethnicstudies.org/), the organization working against the banning of Tucson Unified School District’s Ethnic Studies program and books.

Tucson High School student acknowledges the former Ethnic Studies educators and students in attendance. One of the librotraficantes came forward and recited a poem about the students’ spirit of resistance.

Diaz introduces the young woman (left) who recounted her experience walking out o f classes, resulting in suspension, as a part of the protest of the outlawing of Ethnic Studies and the banning of the curriculum’s books. Afterwards, Diaz also introduced the defendants, former students in the Ethnic Studies program, (right) in the lawsuit against the State of Arizona.

When asked why he wanted to learn about his culture, the boy responded, “It’s me and it’s what I want to be.” Former Ethnic Studies teacher Curtis Acosta (center) thanked the librotraficantes for their work, explaining that some of the teachers have had a chance to travel to different locations, speaking with people who supported them while the students could not experience the same love. Acosta said the librotraficantes helped bring the love to Tucson.

Attendee signs Tucson High School’s MECHA poster.

The underground library with the books banned by Tucson Unified School District. Librotraficantes hold up banned books for photographer (center) and documentarian (left).

"An Arizona official who led the effort to suspend Mexican American studies from Tucson public schools is considering taking his fight to the state university system.

Arizona’s superintendent of schools, John Huppenthal, says Tucson’s suspended Mexican American studies curricula teaches students to resent Anglos, and that the university program that educated the public school teachers is to blame.

“I think that’s where this toxic thing starts from, the universities,” Arizona Superintendent of Schools John Huppenthal said in an interview with Fox News Latino.

Tuesday, March 27, 2012

"1. At a time of sky-high dropout rates nationwide, the Mexican American Studies (MAS-TUSD) K-12 program in Tucson Unified School District is a highly successful department that graduates nearly 95% of its students and sends more than 70% of them to college.1 MAS-TUSD students also score higher on state-mandated standardized tests in English, History and Math.2 By all rights, the nation’s premiere Mexican American Studies K-12 program should be exported nationwide; instead, it is embattled and on an inexplicable path to eventual extermination. The conflict over Tucson’s Mexican American Studies has been a six-year-long struggle, including several courtroom battles, and continues with no end in sight. Despite its phenomenal success, the MAS-TUSD curriculum has raised the ire of the state of Arizona because, according to the former State Schools’ Superintendent Tom Horne, the intellectual author of the anti-ethnic studies measure HB 2281, it purportedly teaches hate and separatism and advocates the violent overthrow of the U.S. government. The objective of this essay is thus to examine the MAS-TUSD curriculum, a curriculum that Horne as well as Governor Jan Brewer and current Superintendent John Huppenthal have actively disparaged for the past several years, and one that is generally unknown to the public because the media deals primarily in sound bites. As a result, few people other than TUSD educators are familiar with its contents beyond the caricature, an effect I hope to correct in this essay."

Wednesday, March 14, 2012

From the interview:
"What is very clear is that The Tempest is problematic for our administrators due to the content of the play and the pedagogical choices I have made. In other words, Shakespeare wrote a play that is clearly about colonization of "the new world" and there are strong themes of race, colonization, oppression, class and power that permeate the play, along with themes of love and redemption. We study this work by Shakespeare using the work of renowned historian Ronald Takaki and the chapter "The Tempest in the Wilderness" from his a book A Different Mirror where he uses the play to explore the early English settlements on this continent and English imperialism. From there, we immerse ourselves in the play and discuss the beauty of the language, Shakespeare's multiple perspectives on colonization, and the brilliant and courageous attention he gives to such important issues."

Monday, March 5, 2012

I will post more later because of the great presentations and key note speakers I saw, including but not limited to author of Subtractive SchoolingAngela Vallenzuela and author of Anglos and MexicansDavid Montejano.